You’ve barely worked in 18 months. The food bank is the only thing between you and a bullet, and up the road your cousin is burning his guts out with black drinking water. Your governor, a Republican, a rich bastard fond of dictionary words, let it all happen.

Can’t you see that Trump is vulgar? I don’t know about you, but I don’t allow that language in my house. And how does a man look at girls that way?

Romney can go to his grandkids and say he stood up for decency. And you, who are in his estimation too busy to have heard of Trump by now, or too dumb, were surely stopped cold by a general election failure declaiming from atop his money pit in Utah.

I'm a little surprised Trump didn't say something about HIS hands.

Image: Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

He hates you, of course. You know it. They’re all the same. They hated your old man and they’ll hate your kids. It’s their hatred that brought you low.

Don’t you want to stick your boot in his face? Spit on him? Make him sweat?

And so Trump grows another hundred feet. No one is in charge, of course. They haven’t been for years; the last time Republicans had a disciplined national strategy, Gingrich was in office. (Politically, war and terrorist attacks are a free ride.)

My history with Romney’s father prevented me from acting, but it shouldn’t get up that far. No one managed to stop him from committing the political equivalent of swallowing even more bleach than he dumped on himself in ’12. Hell, they didn’t think to try.

I’d say we’ve never been so far up shit’s creek before, but I remember Pearl Harbor.

Rubio, for example, wants to make a play at the convention. My God, he pulled 14% in Kansas last night. Does he expect a pat on the back and a nickel to buy gas?

Third place, third place, second, fifth. Now Rubio has given up on Ohio to dig into Florida, where Cruz has a heel on his balls and Trump has one on his neck.

Florida is Rubio Country? C'mon. He'll lose there by at least a dozen points.

Image: Paul Sancya/Associated Press

Rubio will lose Florida by at least a dozen points. Mark that down. Trump will take 99 delegates, and then what do you have?

A dilettante, a kid so despised by North Florida that even the Cubans couldn’t put him over the top.

He took them for granted. Rubio said months ago he’ll quit the Senate if he isn’t elected president, and no one wants to vote for a guy with his foot out the door. He’s only just begun to make phone calls and assemble a ground game. He’s isn’t running ads yet.

Why should he bother? Rubio’s mother was a maid, his old man was a bartender, he likes to watch the Dolphins, and by God he will bring democracy to Syria.

He was told it would be enough. But people are finished with candidates of the Romney/Ryan, smile-and-cash-in crowd.

People inclined to be for Trump want to hang guys like Romney in the town square and burn the remains. https://t.co/ychzoBprV5

The establishment may let Rubio limp into Cleveland because they can’t bear to give the keys to Cruz, who has the manner of a podiatrist brought up on charges, or Kasich, who’s all but treated like a Communist. But if they try to nominate Rubio, it will blow up.

Trump’s people promise that if he goes to the convention with a majority, or even a lead, his delegates will “burn the place down” if Washington tries any funny business. I’m too old to take threats at face value, but there’s no reason to doubt the spirit. Then it becomes a game of alliances and degrees.

If Trump takes Ohio and Florida, it’s effectively finished. He’d have about 741 delegates, and need just half of what remains. But if Kasich wins Ohio and places in Michigan, he’d have about 118 delegates, meaning Trump needs to score almost 60 percent going ahead.

It’s possible. But if he fails, do you look to Rubio, the face of what the party runs from, the crippled rookie who squandered his advantage? Or Kasich, the fighter who stood up on his home ground, the only one in this week’s debate who didn’t sound like a savage?

All this “manhood” business. My God, did you ever dream you’d hear language like that from a candidate for President of the United States?

It’s outrageous, and Trump didn’t even bring it up! I can’t say why Rubio’s mind went there. It seems to be a sort of tic. You’d have to ask him.

Anyway, Kasich stayed out of it. Once you make cracks about Trump’s skin, his wife and so forth, it’s who you are. You own it. But he’s still bigger, stronger, and more practiced than you. That goes double on live television.

If Trump is the little man’s muscle, Kasich is his friend. A lot of Kasich’s people lean to Trump, and the soft Trump voters, the non-bigots, those without ideology, look to Kasich. They want Ohio, while Cruz and Rubio, on the other hand, play to somewhere on the edge of Atlanta, full of shopping malls, Range Rovers, and golf.

It’s a stretch to knock Trump off at the ballot box, but it's the only option. In that case you need Kasich, who ties up the few threads you’ve got.

All this anger can’t be contained by Reagan, Bush, or any of the old religions. The way through, if there’s time, is Kasich. He’s warm on the outside but when the tough decision comes he’s cold, and tough, and chooses without fear or favor.

It is the most we can expect of a president. It's what I expect of myself.Richard Nixon never left us. With the help of playwright Justin Sherin, he continues to speak his mind as @dick_nixon on Twitter.

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